Gilles ROLAND

About Gilles ROLAND

Gilles Roland is a French executive and investor best known as the majority shareholder and leader of Active’Invest, an industrial holding company with stakes in several businesses, including Grolleau. In the governance ecosystem of this listed industrial group, he plays a pivotal role as both a reference shareholder and a board member. His profile combines financial expertise, industrial operating experience, and a clear focus on restructuring, strategic transformation, and long-term value creation. He graduated from ESSEC in 1987 and earned an MBA from Columbia Business School in 1991. Gilles Roland began his career at Michelin, then moved to Deloitte, where he worked on restructuring assignments. He later entered the private equity and leveraged buyout world, first as a junior investor at Apax Partners and then as a partner at ABN Amro Capital. This background gave him strong capabilities in strategic analysis, complex financing, and business turnaround situations. He later took on executive responsibilities at Manoir Industries, where he served as CEO. That role deepened his understanding of industrial operations, manufacturing performance, margin improvement, and change management in demanding production environments. Through Active’Invest, he went on to acquire and manage a portfolio of industrial companies, representing more than €500 million in revenue and around 5,000 employees. At Grolleau, Gilles Roland is associated with an industrial consolidation strategy, international expansion, and adaptation to markets linked to the energy transition, telecommunications, and electric mobility. His position as both investor and operator enables him to combine long-term vision, financial discipline, and support for industrial innovation. In a listed-company context, he represents engaged ownership, with a strong focus on governance, strategic execution, and sustainable value creation for the company and its stakeholders.